


the world above

by euphemea



Series: edge of sea and sky [2]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Baby Felix, Brotherly Love, Fluff, Gen, Kid Fic, rated for glenn's potty mouth, this is a standalone in the series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:35:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22839424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/euphemea/pseuds/euphemea
Summary: Felix gazed upward, as though spellbound by the humans above them, and he stared longingly, his soft sigh giving voice to an obvious hope that one might miraculously dive down into the sea to fulfill his newfound dream.It was endearing, if a little stupid.~~Felix Week Day 3: Fairy Tales
Relationships: Felix Hugo Fraldarius & Glenn Fraldarius
Series: edge of sea and sky [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1641931
Comments: 8
Kudos: 50
Collections: Felix Birthday Week 2020





	the world above

**Author's Note:**

> welcome to the first side story of the main "edge of sea and sky" fic! this stands alone (but makes references to the prologue of the main story) and is set during felix's childhood. 
> 
> unbeta'd but it felt wrong to use the "no beta we die like glenn" tag on this one.

“Glenn! Glenn! Guess what we learned about today!” 

Felix dove forward, tiny arms outstretched and smile gap-toothed, as he collided enthusiastically with Glenn’s midriff. It hadn’t been that long since his last visit (maybe half a moon?), but it was always reassuring to know that his favorite little mer still missed him while he was gone. 

“Oof.” Glenn winced dramatically at the impact. “Careful, little turtle, you’re getting big,” he said, playfully scrubbing a hand through Felix’s hair. “One day, you’ll be so big you’ll crush me if you do that, and then—! You won’t have a brother anymore.”

“Glenn, noooooo!” Felix wailed, shaking away Glenn’s hand and clinging tighter. “You can’t be crushed!”

“I will! You have to be more careful with your poor, old brother.”

“Nooooooooo! Glenn!!”

Glenn flopped theatrically, and he let his limbs go limp against Felix.. “Oh no, I think I might be injured, Fe. What have you done!”

“Okay, I promise! I promise, Glenn! I’ll be careful!” Felix said, tightening his hug around his brother’s waist. “Don’t be injured, Glenn, I’ll protect you!”

Glenn laughed, straightening to smirk down teasingly. He patted a reassuring hand against Felix’s head. “Nah, I’m not that fragile, don’t worry about me, Fe.”

“Glennnnnn!” 

Glenn let out a barking laugh and carefully loosened Felix’s arms from around his waist, guiding the younger up sit in the cradle of his arms. Felix giggled gleefully as Glenn spun him around, his tail’s fin rippling behind him as he was twirled. “So tell me, little turtle, what did you learn today?”

“Oh. Oh! Nurse Amalia told us a story about land-mer!! She said they’re called hoo-mens! And, and—” 

“Humans, little turtle.”

“Humans! And she said they don’t have tails, and they can’t breathe in the water, and sometimes they can’t swim, and they wear funny skins with lots of colors and—!” Felix, bright red, gasped in tiny, labored puffs as he fought the limitations of his lung capacity to finish repeating the fantastical wonders of humans that he had learned.

“Take a breath, Felix!” Glenn said, laughing lighting as a stream of bubbles bursts from Felix’s gills as he finally heaved noisily, gasping loudly before launching back into his monologue. 

“—and then she said that she went up to the surface and she’d seen a human! A real one, not just one from the stories!” Felix said gleefully. “Have you ever met a human, big brother? I want to meet a human, if they’re real. I think they’d have a lot of really cool stuff, and I want to ask them about land. Do you think I could meet a human?”

Glenn rolled his eyes. “I’ve seen some humans before. I don’t think they’re that special,” he said, the corners of his lips curling deviously. “They’re loud and lumbering, and they can’t even swim right.” 

He paused for a moment as Felix stared, bright-eyed and enraptured, before he snorted derisively. “They don’t even breathe right.”

“They’re _real_?” Felix gasped, eyes wide.

“Of course they’re real, silly turtle,” Glenn said, chuckling as he let Felix out of the hug and settled him on a nearby polyp. “But I promise, they’re not exciting. They just go out in their big floating contraptions and sometimes use this weird material to catch fish.”

Felix continued as though Glenn hadn’t said anything. “Wow… they’re _real_. I have to tell Ingrid and Dima…” 

Felix gazed upward, as though spellbound by the humans above them, and he stared longingly, his soft sigh giving voice to an obvious hope that one might miraculously dive down into the sea to fulfill his newfound dream.

It was endearing, if a little stupid.

Humans had always been dangerous and had only been becoming more so as time passed. But Felix was still young, still idealistic and in need of protection, still not ready to face the realities of what his new favorite not-so-mythical creatures were really like. 

Felix clapped his hands together animatedly as a thought struck him. “Glenn! Glenn! I wanna see one! Take me when you go see one of the contra—contaptures next time!”

“Yeah, little turtle? You want to see the humans?” Something in his stomach clenched at the thought, and Glenn hauled Felix back into another crushing hug, the younger wriggling in surprise as he did so. It was incredibly inappropriate, far from the expected decorum of a rising knight trainee, and he could hear the scolding about proper behavior already, but there wasn’t anyone around to judge if Glenn wanted to protect his little turtle. 

If he wanted to let his baby brother keep a bit of innocence. 

Glenn hummed. “I don’t know…”

Felix lightly beat against his brother’s chest, pouting. “Yeah! Take me, if you’re going to see humans again, I wanna watch them!” 

Glenn gave him a wavering smile. Felix was… so young. Glenn wasn’t an adult either—he was just barely beginning his training to enter the King’s Guard—but he’d left the nursery years ago and the cold truth had already buried its way under his skin and scales. 

Maybe Felix could do to learn the truth. Maybe he needed to learn that lesson. But Glenn didn’t want to be the one who’d have to break that illusion for him. Not today, at least.

Glenn pinched one chubby cheek and pulled teasingly. “I’ll ask Father when I get back, okay? And maybe you can come with me next time.”

* * *

Felix was gone. Missing. 

According to Dimitri and Ingrid, he’d swum off on his own not too long after midday and then… just hadn’t come back. Part of Glenn wanted to ask why they didn’t just go _with him_ , but he couldn’t blame them for his idiot brother’s shortsightedness and propensity for misplaced trust. By gods, the stupid little turtle still thought humans could be _friendly_ and still talked about wanting to meet one. He’d moved from the nursery almost three sun-cycles ago, and he still acted like they were going to be his new best friends if only he could just meet one.

Cute, but also laughable.

Father hadn’t been alerted to Felix’s disappearance yet, and Glenn didn’t have the patience to take care of that himself, not with the little turtle lost. He’d told Felix’s playmates to inform Father and King Lambert as soon as they were able to, and in the meantime, he’d search for his brother on his own. 

The kids had said that Felix had headed northeast. Glenn had gone the way they’d pointed, desperate to follow Felix’s trail, but any traces had long been taken away with the tide, and Glenn floundered, blindly guessing his way further and further from Faerghus. Open water was open water—it was welcoming and free and home, but the lack of boundaries meant there was no limit to the paths Felix might have taken and no restrictions to the predators that the dumb baby might have faced.

Glenn’s blood ran cold as a dark thought surfaced. What if humans had captured Felix? 

He’d never be able to forgive himself if they lost his baby brother to humans, especially after everything else humans had taken and continued to take from mer. Glenn might not have legs, but he’d fight his way through the humans to get his brother back if that’s what it took. He was _good_ with a lance, and those horrible land-dwellers wouldn’t know what hit them when Glenn took his warpath to get his brother back.

Taking a chance, he surfaced, eyes darting across the water for any signs of humans that he could hunt down and interrogate. He would have difficulty getting answers because he didn’t speak their tongue, but he could always get Cassandra to help him (however reticent she was about her family’s role as the kingdom’s designated human liaisons). She owed him for getting her out of trouble more than once during training, so they’d be even if she helped him kick around a few humans for answers about his brother. 

Questioning a human or two was honestly an appealing idea, especially to the part of Glenn that was always itching for a fight. The terrified elder brother inside him desperately hoped he found Felix before it came to that. 

Glenn cast his eyes across the sea’s brilliant expanses, a light fatigue and nausea from the evening air striking him as he turned rapidly in the water.

 _There_. 

On the horizon, a flash of familiar, brilliant blue sparkled against the off-white of sands and the dark green of trees. A speck of strange and unfamiliar red floated alongside the blue, and an unpleasant and foreboding tingling crawled along the back of Glenn’s neck. It was too far to see what Felix was doing, but he had a clue, and he didn’t like it.

He swam, heart hammering, the rush of blood impossibly loud in his ear as he rushed toward the beach. His muscles protested as he pushed them to their limits and the water’s friction chafed roughly against his gills as he swam at full speed, but he did not stop until the shallows were just barely deep enough to cover him. 

“Felix!” Glenn called, rage and panic seeping into his voice as he stuck his head back out of the water.

Felix looked up at the sound of his name, turning immediately toward Glenn. A familiar grin danced across Felix’s expression as he met Glenn’s eyes, and he pushed himself away from the human (a fucking _human_ , Glenn was right, and Felix was going to get an earful about it as soon as they were a safe distance away) and toward the water.

“Glenn! You’ll never believe what happened!”

“Felix. Hugo. Fraldarius. You are in _so_ much trouble.”

Felix cowed for a brief moment, his lower lip jutting out. 

Shit. 

Fuck, Glenn was weak to the little turtle’s tears, and if the waterworks started, there’d be no knowing when it would stop, and the whole ordeal would be mortifying, especially in front of the human child still squatting stupefied on the beach.

“You’re just jealous because I got to meet a human!” Felix stuck out his tongue. Glenn blinked. That… wasn’t what he’d expected, but he honestly couldn’t say he was surprised. Unlike most mer children, Felix had never gotten over his human phase.

Glenn let out a shaky laugh. “Yeah, sure, little turtle, whatever you want to believe.” He ruffled Felix’s hair. The little turtle let out undignified squawk and Glenn pulled back as Felix batted him away. “Come on, you, it’s late. Let’s go home.”

Felix beamed. “Okay!” He turned back to the beach and the human boy. The red-headed creep had been watching them, and he sat up a little straighter as Felix turned back around. Pity Glenn didn’t have his lance with him or the little voyeur’s eyeballs would already be gone. 

“Bye, human!” Felix said, light and unaffected as he waved vigorously. “See you next time!” 

The human smiled at Felix and raised a hand to wave back. Disgusting.

Glenn shot the human a glare and pulled Felix with him below the surface.

He swam, furious and determined, irritation bubbling through his veins as he remembered the smug, pink face of the human who’d apparently found Felix. Worry roiled in Glenn’s gut—it was dangerous to make contact with humans, a lesson repeated often, though it had apparently missed Felix’s ears.

“Wha—Glenn, slow down!”

Glenn ignored him, grip tightening on Felix’s wrist.

“Glenn! Stop! You’re hurting me!”

Scalded by the frightened tone, Glenn quickly released his hold and turned to round on his brother instead.

“Do you have _any_ idea how dangerous that was, Fe?”

“Wha— _Dangerous_?”

“I’ve told you before. Stay away from humans, they never want anything good with mer.”

Felix’s cheeks puffed. “I wasn’t in any danger! I can take care of myself!”

“Really?! Then tell me, little turtle, why were you sitting on a beach where a human found you?”

“Don’t little turtle me, Glenn!” Felix glared daggers for a long moment, then closed his eyes and—

_Bam!_

“Oof!” Glenn wheezed. “What do you think you’re doing, Fe!”

“I! Can! Take! Care! Of! Myself!” Felix punctuated each word with a hit of his no-longer-tiny fists. Still not large enough to really hurt, but Glenn supposed it got the point across. He caught Felix’s hands and held them away, bemused by Felix’s furious expression. “Besides! I saved the human.”

Glenn gaped. “You did _what?_ ”

“I saved him! He was doing that human thing where they can’t swim and can’t breathe, so I saved him.”

“ _Why?_ ”

Felix frowned. “Because it’s the noble thing to save people, right?”

“I… Well—,” Glenn said, very elegantly. Felix wasn’t wrong, exactly, but who in their right mind saved a _human_?

“So I saved him!”

“You… found him. And he… wasn’t doing anything to you?”

“What? No.” Felix tilted his head thoughtfully. “He just sort of sat there. I got to poke him a bit! Human bodies are _weird_.” Felix giggled at some unseen memory.

Glenn continued gawking, aghast at the new revelations. They didn’t make the fact that Felix had decided to have playtime with a human a good choice, but they certainly did put the situation in a new light.

Well, except for the bit where he just ran off and lost track of time.

Speaking of.

“Okay, so, fine, the human wasn’t doing anything weird.” Felix grinned victoriously. “You also went missing at midday. It’s almost night now. Do you have anything to say for that?”

Felix’s face fell, pink rising in his cheeks. “I—uh. I’m sorry?”

Glenn snorted. “Sorry’s not going to cut it, little turtle. You scared Ingrid and Dima, and you made me chase you across the water.”

“I was doing the right thing!”

“And?”

“It was the right thing!”

Glenn groaned. Felix's stubbornness could cut through the calcite that formed so many of their weapons. “Yeah, yeah, I suppose you were,” Glenn said, shaking his head. “Just… don’t run off again, okay?” He pinched Felix’s cheek. “You’ll scare your poor old brother to death that way.”

Felix smacked the hand away and launched instead into a hug, his arms as clingy and tight around Glenn’s waist as they had been those years ago when he’d first learned about humans and begged Glenn to take him to see them. 

Glenn’s training screamed in his mind that it was wildly uncouth for two adolescent mer to be so touchy, even as family members, but he supposed he could let it slide for his favorite and only precious baby brother.

“Okay, Glenn.”

“You promise?”

“…I promise.”

Glenn sighed, offering Felix a comforting squeeze. “Good. Don’t make me worry like that again.” 

**Author's Note:**

> find me on twitter [@euphemeas](https://twitter.com/euphemeas)


End file.
